The Senate Agricultural Committee delayed its vote to send Brian Quintenz’s nomination to chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to the Senate.
White House says Brian Quintenz is still nominee to lead the CFTC. Hasn’t said why it requested that Senate Ag delay their planned vote on his confirmation earlier today. H/t @josh_wingrove & @yashroy87 pic.twitter.com/ynrOj5mNH4
— Lydia Beyoud (@ElleBeyoud) July 28, 2025
The White House asked the Agricultural Committee to delay its vote but did not offer a reason for doing so, as noted by Bloomberg’s Lydia Beyoud. Quintenz previously had his committee vote pushed after a Republican senator’s flight was delayed, depriving the Republicans of a crucial vote to clear Quintenz’s nomination. The delay will likely push his expected Senate confirmation vote beyond the Congressional August recess into the fall.
Quintenz connections
Quintenz is a former Republican commissioner for the CFTC, a16z’s Head of Policy for crypto, and a Kalshi board member. Republicans praised his experience in both the private and public sectors in his confirmation hearing.
Quintenz’s nomination vote comes after President Trump signed the GENIUS Act regulating stablecoins and the House passed the CLARITY Act giving the CFTC regulatory authority over cryptocurrencies as commodities.
His ascension will also coincide with the prediction market industry’s fight to defend its sports contracts. Kalshi is leading the charge against state gaming regulators who argue that sports contracts overstep states’ rights to regulate sports betting.
Federal exchanges like Kalshi argue that only the CFTC has the regulatory authority to allow or prohibit event contracts traded on a licensed designated contract market (DCM).
Building on Caroline Pham’s chairmanship
The CFTC that Quintenz is coming into has removed itself from several lawsuits. As a commissioner, one of Pham’s ongoing concerns with the CFTC was the number of cases the CFTC had lost.
In 2024, Pham alluded to “a concerning number of CFTC complaints filed in litigation in federal court have been dismissed for failure to state a claim…or on summary judgment…or overturned in appellate court, meaning that the CFTC does not understand and is wrong about the application of our own statute and our own regulations.”
Since she became the CFTC’s temporary chair, the agency has dropped its appeal in Kalshi’s election contract case and reached a settlement with PredictIt, an academic political prediction market.
With these cases out of the way, Quintenz will be able to focus on crafting regulations that likely allow prediction markets to expand. This could include new events like horse racing, expanded sports markets like props and parlays, and new types of markets like conditional markets. While Kalshi hasn’t expressed hopes for horse racing specifically, the election contract case holds clues for the possible aftermath of its sports lawsuits.
After Kalshi won its election contract case, its political and election market categories expanded aggressively. Many markets beyond what it was originally fighting to offer suddenly became fair game. A similar growth pattern could follow legal victory in the sports cases, if Kalshi prevails, which could lead to expanded markets beyond what is available today, especially with an agreeable regulator.
Quintenz has previously defended not only sports contracts, but also stated that “all events are commodities.” He’s likely to oversee a permissive CFTC once confirmed.
Unanswered CFTC questions remain
Quintenz’s chairmanship will be riddled with nagging questions about how the CFTC will function under him.
Since Pham and Commissioner Kristin Johnson plan to resign after Quintenz takes over, he’ll be the only commissioner on the CFTC. How long he’ll remain that way or whether President Trump will nominate any other commissioners, Republican or Democrat, remains to be seen.
Quintenz could also oversee Polymarket’s transition to a regulated prediction market platform operating in the U.S. Once the CLARITY Act is passed, Quintenz will, among other things, have a new framework for licensing crypto platforms. The amount of leniency Polymarket can expect and whether it can comply with necessary CFTC regulations also remains to be seen.
Large changes are coming to the American finance industry as crypto and prediction markets both enjoy large growth. Quintenz will play a crucial role in shaping these industries over at least the next three years, assuming his nomination is approved as expected.
